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Ackerman Won’t Seek Re-Election to Congress

Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York TimesRepresentative Gary Ackerman, shown last summer on Capitol Hill with his 1966 Plymouth Valiant, had a colorful career.

WASHINGTON — Representative
Gary L. Ackerman, a longtime member of Congress from Queens and Long Island, announced on Thursday that he would not seek re-election, an unexpected development that brings an end to a colorful political career.

Mr. Ackerman, 69, arrived at his decision even though it was quite likely that his district would be spared under the Congressional redistricting process, which the state is close to completing. New York must reduce the size of its House delegation to 27, from 29, to reflect population changes recorded in the 2010 census.

In an interview, Mr. Ackerman said he felt it was time to do something else that would be just as challenging and fulfilling as Congress. “It’s time to contribute in a different way,” he said.

Because Democrats outnumber Republicans in his district, Democrats are expected to be able to hold Mr. Ackerman’s seat, meaning the district will probably have no impact in the national battle between both parties for control of the House.

“If there was a chance Democrats couldn’t hold it, I would be running,” Mr. Ackerman said.

Mr. Ackerman’s term will end on Jan. 2.

Mr. Ackerman’s decision surprised and baffled his colleagues in Congress. For weeks, he had been telling them that he would run and was making preparations for a campaign, even urging other Democrats eyeing his newly constituted district not to enter the race, a top Democratic official said.

But then, Mr. Ackerman often baffled people on Capitol Hill during his 15 terms. Loud and gregarious, he was hard to miss in the corridors of Congress, always wearing a white carnation boutonniere and pulling up for work in a white 1966 Plymouth Valiant.

And unlike other lawmakers who live in apartments, hotels and houses during the week while Congress is in session, he lived on a houseboat called the Unsinkable II, a 42-foot vessel with one room, which was docked on the Potomac River, just miles from Capitol Hill. (The Unsinkable I sank in the Potomac in the mid-1980s.)

He was also known for an annual fund-raiser in Washington, a quintessentially New York affair catered with kosher deli food shipped in from the city, including corned beef, pastrami, matzo ball soup, sour pickles, stuffed cabbage, hot dogs with mustard and sauerkraut, and Dr. Brown’s sodas. It was a popular function, with lawmakers from all over the country trying to attend.

Mr. Ackerman was born in Brooklyn in 1942, and his family later moved to Queens. He was a product of New York City public schools. After attending Brooklyn Technical High School, he went to Queens College, graduating in 1965. He then took a job in a junior high school, teaching social studies, journalism and math.

It was clear even then that he had an activist streak. In 1969, after his first child was born, he requested a leave of absence, which was denied on the grounds that such leave was granted only to new mothers. He went on to bring a successful suit against the Board of Education, paving the way for both parents to be granted unpaid leave to tend to a newborn child.

Mr. Ackerman eventually left teaching and went on to start a weekly newspaper, The Flushing Tribune, later known as The Queens Tribune.

In 1978, he entered politics, winning a seat in the State Senate. Five years later, he won his seat in Congress in a special election.

As a representative, Mr. Ackerman sat on two major committees, House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs, that gave him clout on important issues of the day. He was, for example, an ardent backer of Israel, and pushed Democratic and Republican administrations not to waver in their support of the Jewish state.

With large numbers of Asian immigrants living in his district, Mr. Ackerman also became one of Congress’s leading experts on Asian policy. As chairman of the Asia and the Pacific subcommittee, he traveled to North Korea in 1994 to urge its leader, Kim Il Sung, to abandon that nation’s nuclear weapons program, leading the country to sign an agreement that temporarily suspended its nuclear program.

On the domestic front, Mr. Ackerman was active as well. Among his major legislative accomplishments was a 1996 law that for the first time required hospital to notify mothers if their newborn infants had tested positive for H.I.V.

On Thursday night, Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg praised Mr. Ackerman, recalling a trip to Israel that they made together in 2009. During their visit to a police station in Sderot, the mayor said, a rocket alarm went off.

“As everyone scrambled into the bomb shelter, Gary was cool and collected, which is exactly how he went about business in Congress for more than three decades,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The borough of Queens — and the people of Israel, Africa and so many other areas of the world — have rarely had a stronger ally in Congress, and our entire nation will miss Gary’s encyclopedic knowledge of foreign policy and so many other issues.”

Mr. Ackerman was well liked by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. “Gary was a hard worker and served his district well,” said Representative
Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island. “He was colorful, flamboyant and generous.”

Here is the statement from Mr. Ackerman’s office:

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.) today announced that he will not seek re-election to the United States Congress.

On the eve of the Federal Circuit Court’s approval of Congressional district lines that were seen to be extraordinarily favorable to Ackerman, and with the primary-free backing of the Democratic Party virtually assured, Ackerman has informed his family, staff, friends and party leaders that he will not seek a 16th term of office.

“The residents of Queens and Long Island have honored me with their trust and support for the past 34 years, first as a New York state senator, and for the past 15 terms as a Member of Congress,” said Ackerman. “I’ve been truly privileged to have had the opportunity to fight for the beliefs of my neighbors in both the state capital and in the halls of Congress. During my years in Congress, it has been my pleasure to address the needs of thousands of individual constituents, and to influence domestic and global policy while serving on the financial and foreign affairs committees in the House. I am most thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve my country and my community.”

Congressman Ackerman went on to say that he remains extremely passionate about the causes related to his Congressional activities and expects that he will continue to be aggressively involved in many local and global issues as he moves into his role as a private citizen.

Ackerman’s term of office will end on Jan. 2, 2013.

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